Once again, photographer Sterling Lorence, absolutely kills it out in the desert to bring you portraits of riders with their bikes. Tracking down all of these guys through the expanse of the canyon is no mean feat and yet each year Sterl delivers the goods.

Logan has been running a single speed on his DH bike for a while. When I went to the KMC winter series in March I spent a couple days riding with him and the KHS team. I asked him about it and he said he does it to shave the weight of the cassette. I can see that for racing purposes, but not really for rampage. Either way Im pulling for him cause he's a local dude and one of the coolest guys Ive ever met.

Wil White 70(rear) 30 (front) cased a 55ft gap, prototype broke. He then hopped on a loaned bike from Bordo (WHO SENT IT IN A THREE QUARTER FACE HELMET, PADLESS & NO SHIRT) & sent it.And logan, more commonly known as #POACHeli, such a goon. Never seen someone so disrespectful.

Cool format for presenting these bikes, nice photos by Lorence. These are truly the monster Mad Max Baja trucks of the bicycle world. The downtube on the Canyons look immense. I think Fairclough's bike has the coolest graphics.

Yes, three pairs of clips! Nutters! And TWO singlespeed setups.
The lack of chainguides is scary! I hate to think what would happen if the chain got sucked into the spokes before the canyon gap for example!

yeah had no idea that Norbs was still gonna be on specialized when he left the coastal crew but it makes sense. Another note is that Wil White was riding for morpheus and snapped his frame, now he is riding a YT. Not sure if morpheus was really giving Wil White support or if they just gave him a frame. Either way Wil White seems to have to always go through a lot of adversity and that is TOUGH

From interviews, he seems to be a really hardworking, talented kid who just does his own thing. Granted, he only does one event per year (Rampage), but then again, so do all of the Fest guys, who at least seem to get decent support from their sponsors. I honestly hope he ends up thrashing that YT all the way to the podium.

very few zocchis are the best model, but the bottom out spring is a great choice for big hits.
dartmoor guys and mccaul are either on 2014 stuff or lower grade 2015, only mcgauzza and macfarlane have the tops

Jesus @johnyyy ... cheer up, saying it's just your opinion does not redeem yourself from behaving an a-hole. There's a Polish dude on rampage on a Polish bike, when I was watching NWD1 when all we had was fireroads and few shitty DH tracks, it was unthinkable - Cheer the fk up

@WAKIdesigns I am proud as hell, but still it would be nice to see Szymon on jaw dropping bike ;-) a bit of customization, special stickers anything. Its always nice to see when company cares about this details. Pimped bike is not only for us (the viewers) but but for the rider and marketing as well. Thats all.

ps: I dont feel like an a-hole, is it bad to ask for more? I'm not hating the company so chill

It was Bourdo's bike. Lets get Wil on YT, he's a perfect fit. Bad ass, doesn't fit the norm and isn't afraid to sent it. Plus his Parents are Bad Ass Harley folks. Perfect fit for the zero F'ks given brand?

I think the X0 Carbon cranks aren´t the best choice for a rampage rider (like Graham Agassiz). I hope Sram give them enough sets for routine replacement. Some of the Saints look used. Most of the Srams not. Since my last crash i know why :-)

I cannot believe how many riders are just trusting the narrow/wide drive train. I know that there aren't many pedal strokes needed, but when they need it...THEY NEED IT! I'd think at least an upper guide would be worth throwing on.

Someone answer me this. Why do so many of these guys ride with their seats relatively high? I would want my seat slammed so I have space for my family jewels. Especially considering these guys all have massive balls to ride this event.

im not sure who "we all" is, or how they ride, but judging from these pics, all the best riders in the DH and freeride world seem to think that the sweet spot is at or just 1-2" below the level of the handlebars, regardless of the amount of exposed seat post.

ok i know n/w chain retention tech is getting better and better, but the lack of chainguides on some these rigs is making me nervous just looking at them. If something can go bad, it probably will....especially at rampage where the margin for error is incredibly small.

Anyone noticed the correlation between Sram and no guide? Most not running a guide are on Sram. Other brands seam to need a guide? Better retention? When you have guys like Zink not running a guide, that speaks volumes to me......Im sure they wouldn't risk it for nothing.

I think there are a few things to consider with regards to the chain guides.

1) chain retention tech is very impressive these days. You pointed out the n/w rings but that coupled with the clutch rear derailleur does a pretty awesome job ok keeping the chain on.

2) These guys are not pedaling and shifting that much at Rampage. And if you look at the bikes in the pictures most guys are running a very narrow range cassette in the back which means that their is very minimal slack in the chains for the derailleur to take up. So their chains will bounce around even less than usual.

3) The Rampage course, while gnarly and hell is relatively smooth. The drops are huge and the lines are steep, but most of the riders lines are pretty buffed out. Its not like a WC course with roots and gnarly rock gardens where the chain is most likely to be bouncing around the most.

You are missing one little detail - they can take a foto without chainguide to advertise sram's NW rings and then put chainguide on real run. Just pay attention the Aggy's bike lacks chainguide in this article, but you can see it on bike on his post qualification foto!

So rumour is the Claw left Specialized because they wouldn't give him the new Demo because he's "too freeride not a racer".. But they gave Rogatikin one? I'm a little confused.. Still can't wait to see what they both throw down regardless!

This Rampage may be quite the ad for YT. Great that Wil White and Bourdo have nice looking rides to compete on and wonder if they are getting support from YT as an ongoing thing. Kyle J still appears to very much love this S#$%... good to see.

Spec and giant don't seem to care much for freeride, they're more wcdh centric. Same as SC, Intense, GT, lapierre etc. Must be more money to be made in racing. Props to the smaller companies reppin the freeriders.

Love this feature! I could waste a lot of work time geeking out on this. Bourdo is the man and I am in no place to questionit, but I just can't wrap my head around why he rides as big as he has in an open face helmet.

Air Shocks are great for big hits because they have a natural tendency to ramp up the further they go into the stroke. Springs give better mid travel response and do not ramp up that much deep into the travel, ideal for DH racing...

Digging Strait all geared in FOX but riding Rock Shox- man knows how to double-dip! I am curious why more frame designers aren't following versions of Commencal's setup where the rear suspension is totally isolated... any force into the rear wheel compresses the shock from two sides, neither of which is the main triangle. Seems like that would allow the front of the bike to work better since it isn't influenced as much by the rear compressing.